Feel the wind in your hair (or helmet) and the track speeding beneath you as you race your bike past competitors. Track bicycling is a lot like Nascar, but the vehicle you're racing is a single-speed bike with no breaks.

This may sound frightening, but the Saturday morning beginner sessions at San Jose's Hellyer Park Velodrome will get you prepped to speed around the 23-degree embanked track. Conquer the track and get up to speeds as high as 52 miles per hour.

With all of the big races that have been going on down at Hellyer Park, people tend to wonder how they can get to ride on the track. The answer to that desire is the Saturday morning beginner session. Don't ride your fixie around on the road pretending that you are on the track, experience the real thing and go on down. The gates open at 8:30 in the morning so that people can get situated and rent bikes if needed.